Like, Those Filler Words

While the article points out several reasons people use this discourse marker — as a filled pause to gather one’s thoughts, as an utterance to hold the floor and not be interrupted — as a linguist, I take issue with the overall negative framing of the behavior.

“Like” is being used in logical ways. More academic-sounding filled pauses such as “that is to say” get a pass; “like” is seen as sloppy.

SUSAN J. BEHRENS, BROOKLYN

The writer is a professor of communication sciences and disorders at Marymount Manhattan College.